BONES Season Premiere Recap: ‘The Future in the Past’
September 17, 2012 by Sarah Curtis
Hey BONES fans! How did you like the S8 premiere, “The Future in the Past”? Show creator Hart Hanson kept up his informal tradition of making the season finale and subsequent season premiere a two-part episode, so to speak, and he did a nice job co-writing this one with co-executive producer Stephen Nathan. This episode wasn’t perfect by any means, but for the most part, the pacing, plot and characterization were good. So let’s discuss!
THE CASE:
The Scene of the Crime: While still on the run from murder charges regarding the death of her friend Dr. Ethan Sawyer, Brennan meticulously excavates another set of remains for the Jeffersonian team to find…in hopes it will convince the FBI to convict Christopher Pelant, thereby clearing her from said murder charges.
The Victim: Carol Morrissey, the guidance counselor from Pelant’s high school. She went missing shortly after Pelant graduated from high school.
Potential Suspects/Motives: The J-team wants Pelant to be Carol’s murderer, and they focus their attention on proving it. Pelant’s motives are hard to pin down — he’s very intelligent, but also cocky. As far as I know, it’s unclear why he’s targeted Brennan and the Jeffersonian team.
Lab Results: With Brennan out, Angela focuses on cracking the “blood key” code left by Dr. Sawyer before his death. She’s convinced it’s a clue toward figuring out how Pelant framed Brennan. Initially, her work only clears Caroline of fraud charges, but eventually, she is able to crack the code.
Also because of Brennan’s absence, Clark has become the resident forensic anthropologist. He oversees the examination of Carol’s skeleton and does his best to earn/keep respect from Cam, Angela and Hodgins at the lab. His method of putting all findings in the binder is not well received, but it proves effective when, after sneaking in to the abandoned Jeffersonian with Booth, Brennan is able to see what her team has done.
Brennan determines that Carol’s body was hung upside down and that her body was drug upward, causing some of the skeletal issues as well as particulates found on her body. Because of the research she and Max completed on their own, she knows that Pelant was overweight in high school (a discrepancy from the computer generated photos the rest of the Jeffersonian team found of him online). This knowledge of his BMI allows for a much lighter/smaller murder weapon. Brennan also reveals that Max had coffee with Pelant’s grandfather and that he was in WWII, in the Asia/Pacific area. Hodgins identifies a Japanese metal in the particulates, and Brennan suggests a Japanese sword may be the murder weapon.
The Interrogation Room: Booth, currently a demoted desk jockey, bristles at Agent Flynn’s actions on the case to apprehend Brennan. Flynn also gets little cooperation from Sweets, who insists he knows nothing of Brennan’s whereabouts nor what Booth might know. Sweets also admits that he knows Booth wouldn’t want him to have to lie to Flynn.
After Caroline is reinstated on the case, she is able to pull some of Carol’s files. Sweets analyzes the data and figures out that in high school, Pelant hacked into the school’s computer system and forged a recommendation letter from Carol to Stanford, the only college he applied to. Pelant was able to figure out the system but unable to cover up his own writing patterns. He also notes that Pelant’s letter was the last one Carol wrote before her disappearance.
Booth concocts a trap for Pelant by having Cam email important files to the FBI, hoping Pelant will hack into the system and break his parole. This occurs, and Flynn brings Pelant in for questioning. During that time, they also present him with the Japanese sword and (presumably) book him for murdering Carol Morrissey.
The Verdict: When all seems to be closed up tight, Booth receives a call from the FBI. He and Brennan rush to the Hoover building, where Flynn and Caroline inform them that Pelant is in fact NOT Christopher Pelant, but an Egyptian citizen. There are fingerprints, etc. to prove it. Pelant appears to be walking free, and there is nothing Booth and Brennan can to do stop him.
THE SQUINTS:
While each team member feels the pressure of clearing Brennan’s name and getting her back at the Jeffersonian, the expression of it manifests differently for each character. Angela, not surprisingly, felt it the strongest, focusing all of her mental and physical energy on clearing Brennan’s name — to the point where Cam had to remind her that if she wanted to continue to use the Jeffersonian’s time and resources, she also had to participate in other cases. I liked that Brennan kept in touch with Angela through the various flowers, and I liked the scene with Angela and Booth, where it was clear Booth was frustrated and Angela tried to support him.
Hodgins balances his love and loyalty to Angela with the work that needs done. He maintains his cool around the lab, but quickly loses it when he runs into Pelant at a cemetery. Hodgins forcibly chokes Pelant, but releases his hold when he gets the impression Pelant wants him to kill him. This revelation causes Hodgins to admit these actions to Sweets.
In addition to Sweets’ work with the files, I laughed when he expressed his discomfort at being at the lab with rogue-Brennan and simultaneously was happy to see her. Good times.
I liked the way Cam stood up for Clark, especially when Angela intimated that neither of them cared enough about clearing Brennan’s name, and I also appreciated the way Cam made room for Clark at the Jeffersonian after Brennan was reinstated. Clark’s findings in the binders deal made me laugh, and I won’t mind seeing him around the lab more.
BOOTH and BRENNAN:
There were a couple of moments where I thought B&B had maybe been keeping contact while Brennan was away, but many other moments suggested otherwise. What do you think? Also, how did you like the motel reunion scene? It was promo-d heavily, so it lost a little specialness there (my opinion only), but I really loved the part later when Booth was feeding Christine and talking science with her.
Overall, it was sweet how much Brennan missed Booth. Not “surprisingly sweet,” per se, but there’s always the possibility of her over-rationalizing her decisions. I thought the writers (and Emily Deschanel) did a nice job showing Brennan’s inner conflict there while also maintaining her (in her eyes) reasons for running from the murder charges. That emotion vs. rationalism is one of her main series conflicts, and it worked here. I also liked that she took her own matters into her own hands, excavating Carol Morrissey’s remains, etc.
One of Booth’s main conflicts is that “controlling situations to protect those he loves” complex, so it was no surprise to see him on a near rampage for redemption. I liked his relentless pursuit of Pelant, and that he had no problem getting in Flynn’s face when he wanted results. I’m not sure yet how I feel about him thanking Angela for getting his family back for him…I will have to think more about that. Thoughts from you?
What didn’t work for me:
- No way an institution like the Jeffersonian (and FBI) dismisses security at the whim of an employee — especially when another employee is in the middle of a federal investigation. Unreal, and it doesn’t do the show’s credibility factor any favors.
- Speaking of the FBI, if someone’s accused of a crime and later cleared, but has already run away to escape the charges, are there still ramifications? Not for Brennan, I guess!
- I love The Lumineer’s “Ho Hey” song, and I can see how its folksy “I belong with you” romanticism would apply to many aspects of BONES, but Pelant’s arrest/interrogation is not one of those aspects. Seems like a “try to be trendy” move, and I thought it was a miss here.
- I didn’t see a correlation between the episode and its title, “The Future in the Past”, but maybe I missed it.
What I loved:
- I liked the delineation between Brennan and Max’s reactions to their situation. Max was more rogue than he has been at times in the past (but not out of character), where Brennan was more connected with people — Booth especially. It brought back to light how Max was capable (with Christine the First) of leaving Brennan and Russ during their childhood and how Brennan ultimately could not stay away from her home and family (including the Jeffersonian team). I also thought it played to Brennan’s characteristic of always seeking the truth, vs. Max’s wily nature.
- Booth and Brennan’s reconciliation was a little too smooth to be realistic, but I also think it was in character for them — Brennan’s reaching out to make sure he understood her reasoning despite her desires, and Booth’s acceptance of them — while it might not be how I would have handled the situation in their shoes, I think they have resolved it between themselves. It will be interesting to see if any issues pop up throughout the season.
- B&B washing machine sex. Heck yes!
- I loved, loved, loved the ending of the episode, especially the ambiguity of Flynn’s character and motivations. That Pelant could be around for more is also very, very intriguing.
How about you? What worked for you and what didn’t? What are your thoughts on Flynn? Do you buy Booth and Brennan’s reconciliation? Will Max stay out of things? How long will it be if/when Pelant strikes again? Are you excited for more? The comments are open — let’s discuss!
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I found this premiere to be as strong as the finale. It was a good “2nd part”. The strengths lay in the full team focus and the emotional pull. I like how it continued to be fast-paced. This kind of episode is obviously not their weekly kind, but that makes it all the more effective.
On the plot side with details and whatnot, I found a lot still hard to fully swallow, just as I did with the finale. However, I have not often gotten hung up on that kind of thing, so I didn’t have any real issues with that. In other words, among many other things (including a single man’s ability to literally do ANYTHING he wants digitally and the Japanese sword, just to name a couple), I’m with you, Sarah, on the lab security bit. (If I look at these serial-type killer arcs that they do from a writer perspective, I have to give them kudos for stretching themselves and most of the time pulling it off pretty well.)
In spite of my issues w/the Japanese sword, I do like that Max and Brennan had been busy.
Character-wise: I’m good with the B/B reunion and reaction – I felt it was completely in character and almost exactly like I expected. One of my favorite lines was when Max said “Yeah, but Booth being here changes everything” and Brennan smiled and agreed. Lovely juxtaposition of perspective.
I loved everything surrounding Clark including Cam’s support AND Brennan praising the binder system. Excellent. Hodgins was his usual fantastic self and I was kind of unhappy with seeing Flynn joining them at B/B’s house at the end. On the other hand I love that his role is now nebulous. A very good twist.
I get you on the thing about Booth thanking Angela, but if it makes you feel any better, the way he phrased it… he never actually apologized to Angela for being angry with her. 😉 And seriously, that was all in character, too, I think.
I love having this show back.
An absolutely phenomenal episode…intense, exciting, disturbing, and extremely good. It’s scary how much control Pelant seems to have (I think a lot of what he does is actually possible in some context, he is a genius with way too much free time it seems). Brennan and Booth were spot on and this brought back shades of season 2…very excited for season 8
Also, the review said that it looks like B&B resolved things between themselves but I don’t believe that is the case…what I saw was Booth trying to reign in his anger, it was noticeable to me…short answers, usually some hesitation when he would give them like he was censoring himself
LOVED the episode! I have to say, thanks to all the spoilers that’ve been posted, I saw the Hodgins threatening Pelant with death thing coming, although who’d have ever thought he’d actually almost strangle the guy?! It’s pretty interesting that Pelant wants one of the Jeffersonian people to kill him; thinking back, Pelant was actually smiling after Booth broke into his house and beat the crap out of him. At the time, it was easy to just assume he was smiling because things were going according to plan, but now it looks like the dude, on top of all his other creepy aspects, is something of a masochist as well. It’ll be interesting to see that pans out, and who will kill him. (Someone probably will, in my opinion.)
I also think I know who Cam’s gonna end up having a romance with; I saw one site that mentioned that the seeds were planted in this episode, which looks to be true. If so, it’ll be an interesting relationship.
They’re doing a good job of making Flynn’s character ambiguous. I’m not yet anywhere near convinced that he’s evil, though; he could have simply taken the flower out of the trash for evidence or something. We haven’t seen enough of him yet to really get a feel for him, but I know we will.
Loved the ending! What a great twist!
One final thing I have to point out: for a genius, Pelant was pretty darn stupid with the flowers at the graveyard thing. If he had just left the flowers there, Max wouldn’t have had any reason to think anything was wrong, and would have taken the flowers back to Brennan, and Pelant may have actually been able to follow him back to Brennan, as he wanted. Taking the flowers from the grave tipped Max off; pretty dumb move. On a related note, though, it’s kind of chilling to wonder what Pelant would have done if he HAD succeeded in finding Brennan….
Overall, excellent episode. Can’t wait for next week!
I loved the episode, and I’m glad they came back with such a bang. I am looking forward to more of Pelant. I feel like he is one of the better serial killers the show has had. My coworkers at Dish and I are still talking about all the details of the episode. I’m glad my Hopper DVR caught it for me; I had not set a reminder and thought I would miss it. The Hopper will record all the shows in prime time from the four major networks automatically seven days a week, it’s really convenient. My only difficulties with the episode were some of the details with the spit triangle, and I guess I got too into it, but I really didn’t like Angela’s attitude. I felt like her selfishness was really not fun to watch; I understand her motivations but it came off as really immature.
I disagree with Sarah about the song not working for the interrogation piece of the montage. First of all, I loved that little bit with Pelant looking so smug and then Booth’s almost imperceptible smile. But the reason the song worked there is that the words “I belong with you, you belong with me in my sweet home” were playing as that smile appeared on Booth’s face, showing Pelant had not succeeded in pulling B&B apart.
I enjoyed the episode. A few items you commented on: I don’t think Booth wanted the info sent via email, I think that was all Cam. I think the title has to do with Pelant: they looked into his past(high school) and tied it to his future. I liked that Booth figured out the name of the hotel,Snow Drop, from the flower. I also found it believeable that the relationship issues will come out later, looks like next week. I think Flynn is a bad guy, I did not see the twist with the new identity. I though that Pelant would figure out a way to order his own release and escape. I think Cam may be dating Clark in the future?? Not sure how I would feel about this. I loved Hodgins and Sweets in the episode. I loved the song, I thought it worked well and I loved the line about Angela’s blank thinking face. The season is off to a good start.
I’m so happy. This ep. met ALL my expectations and beyond. Bravo Bones team. SGMKJ!
A person can be cleared of all charges, including evading arrest if they are proven innocent. That part was believable but it wasn’t shown of course. Who wants to see that?? And the original proscecuting attorney has the option of filing charges or not. As we saw, Caroline was the original attorney, do she chose not to file evading charges on Brennan.
Great way to start the season! love this show. Great acting!! looking forward to next week!
God bless Hart Hanson. It makes a world of difference when he is directly involved with writing an episode as opposed to when it’s just Stephen Nathan. The season 7 premiere is evidence of that. But this episode felt like the Bones that I fell in love with years ago.
I loved the Hodgins twist – his repressed violent nature is something that’s been hinted at frequently using humor – he was unremorsefully gleeful when the Gravedigger was shot; he mentioned to Wendell that he planned his murder out in great detail when Wendell was dating Angela – and to see that it isn’t all for jokes – Hodgins seriously has this side to himself – brilliantly done.
I also love the ambiguity of Flynn. When he was doing the toast in B&B’s house and joking with Booth about the chair, that set off more alarm bells for me more than when he picked up the flower. I’m looking forward to see if I’m wrong about that or not.
Max being old-school, Judas on a Pole Max – “He needs killing, Booth” – Hell to the yes.
The B&B reunion – a little shorter than what was shown in the previews, but it’s all good. I was just happy for a kissing scene that wasn’t awkward and showed some actual passion.
Loved that they used “Hey Ho” by The Lumineers!! It’s an awesome song!
I’m guessing Cam’s love interest is going to be Clark? Blech. Ick. Vomit. Why does Cam need a love interest to be a relevant character? And of all people, why does it have to be Clark? I think I’d rather watch Sweets & Daisy, and that’s saying a lot.
First let’s just have “Ben” go do his advertising for Dishnetwork somehwere else, – you are on several sites advertising for that business tramping around as a Bones fan, knock it off.
Somebody has got to have a list longer than mine concerning the mish-mash of a writing effort that this episode turned out to be. My list is made up of horrible lack of continutiy lines for this serial killer arc, which clearly has been mis-handled in the passing off to the new writing huddle. This was painful to watch.
I will say now, before the haters attack, the B&B moments were sweet, but nothing more. Not hot, just sweet.
So much more could have been down with this story that would have accomplished getting it to be half way acceptable, even for television. The story arc is so grossly mishandled now, that it is really laughable. It felt rushed, it felt like the entire story was not thought out, and therefore the audience will just have to accept huge leaps of fiction to get us back where HH needed the story line. Did he feel so bad about all the fall out from the Season 7 finale that we HAD to have Bones cleared in the first episode of Season 8? We lost so much potential for a good hook, and by the numbers in the ratings we need a hell of a hook this season.
Pelant started out as an evil, vile little twit, that was easily seen as a thorn in the team’s side. Now – Egyptian government authorities are on the scene and his identity changes. Fingerprints never change folks. Horrible script writing.
Good thing next week’s episode has nothing to do with Pelant. He is now just the Michelin Man of serial killers, big and puffy and written by people who apparently feel the need to keep him aired up with lots of hot air.
Hodgins has just turned into my fav character outside of my B&B shipper side. Sweets is so far outside of the realm of possibility as a PSY/Agent that I can’t swallow that pill of “poof, he’s a full fledged agent now”. Not even after they gave him a belt badge to wear, like Booth has. Booth was mad at Angela, really? Not explored- so was lost completely in the episode. I am happy to see a hint of ED and DB chemistry coming back.
After all that, this hopeless Bones fan is holding out with hope that the writers produce something decent next episode.
AJ,
I’m glad I am not the only one who didn’t like this episode. What a mess. I’m baffled about what HH is trying to do with this show. There were so many storylines I thought about over the summer and none of them were explored, such as:
– Booth and Angela…they should have explored this relationship more
– Booth’s reunion with his daughter! We barely saw them together and we didn’t get to see when he first sees her, and this was one of the central points of pain for Booth? Horribly glossed over
– Likewise they did not show Booth seeing Max again….what was said…how did it go? We can only guess since they didn’t shows
The whole episode just felt rushed. It’s unbelievable that there won’t be any fallout for Brennan for being a fugitive, and the twist at the end was too ridiculous for words.
There were some good things:
– Brennan clearly showed how much she loves Booth. This is a nice touch because this is something she has struggled with in the past. HH writes these scenes better than just about anyone, in my opinion.
– Max is awesome, and I love his relationship with Booth. I think it’s interesting that Booth has formed this relationship with Booth (father figure kind of ?) and if the rumors are correct, Brennan may form a similar relationship with Booth’s mother later this season. Seems B&B provide a lot for each other, right?
I don’t see the new “darker” tone that HH and SN talked about. The promos for The Partners in the Divorce look silly, and Booth and Brennan bumping heads over a pot of coffee (while Brennan is wearing an apron, no less…did you catch that?) doesn’t seem like they are exploring the resentment and angst in their relationship. We shall see.
Sorry that should be “Booth has formed this relationship with Max”